Not everyone wants to base their holiday meal on turkey or other cuts of meat, and festive Christmas dinner with fish can perfectly replace them. For fish lovers, Christmas offers the opportunity to impress guests and family members with a special centerpiece based on seafood. So create your own festive servings of rich sauces by taking inspiration from the examples below!
Whole oven-roasted fish is a great communal dish that looks fantastic, cooks well and offers something different to the typical cuts of meat served on Christmas tables. Additionally, cooking a seafood product with skin and bones encases the meat, making it taste tender and juicy. If the fish is also stuffed, the fish meat also absorbs the flavor of the filling quite well.
Normally isSalmon a popular seasonal fish, which is perfect for this, but many types of fish can be prepared this way. Essentially, this should be fish ready for seasoning and baking. To do this, you can season the skin appropriately and fill the fish with fresh ingredients and various fragrant herbs.
So what else could you fry instead of a whole salmon? A whole turbot, for example, is also an excellent alternative. Since this is flatfish, you can experiment with different ways to bake it on trays and creatively surround it with ingredients of your choice.
If a whole fish is a bit too much, you can of course also use fish fillets. In addition, following common cooking methods, you can easily prepare a festive Christmas dinner with fish and bake it on a tray to achieve great results for your Christmas table. Without further ado, here are some of the best recipe ideas for you to try out for yourself.
Poached salmon fillet with asparagus and shrimp
A beautifully presented fish dish with salmon can be a brilliant centerpiece for your Christmas table. You can also prepare the dish very quickly and easily. If you find a good fishmonger or shop that will trim and debone the fillet nicely, there is very little you can do except serve it and impress your guests.
Ingredients:
- Butter, for greasing
- 1 small bunch of dill
- large salmon fillet (approx. 1 kg), with skin
- 50 ml white wine
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the dressing: - ½ shallot, finely diced
- 2 TL Dijonsenf
- 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 150 ml light olive oil
- 1 teaspoon powdered sugar
- 1 bunch of dill, chopped
To garnish: - 20 asparagus tips, halved
- 100 g peeled and cooked shrimp, patted dry
- Radishes, sliced or herbs of your choice
Preparation:
- You can assemble the dish up to 3 hours in advance. The salmon can be poached up to 8 hours in advance and the dressing can be made up to a week in advance.
- First preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas.
- Then butter a large piece of aluminum foil to wrap the salmon in and place over a large roasting pan. If you don't have a roasting pan large enough to accommodate the length of the fish fillet, a grill or fish pan can be an equally good alternative.
- Now place the dill in the middle of the foil.
- Then sprinkle the buttered foil with salt and pepper and place the salmon on top, skin side up.
- First pour white wine and lemon juice over it and bring the two long edges of the foil together. Fold the edges together, scrunch them up into a package, and seal the edges on the sides.
- Make sure you seal the edges of the foil packet well before baking it. This means no steam escapes from the sides and the fish can cook nicely inside.
- Place in the oven to poach until the salmon is just cooked through and the flesh is pale pink and opaque, about 25 minutes.
- Then let the fillet rest for 10 minutes and carefully remove the skin, pulling it off in one piece if possible.
- Then blanch the asparagus tips in a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes.
- Drain and then refresh the pieces under cold water.
- First, mix all the ingredients for the dressing in a jug and season with salt and pepper.
- Then carefully place the salmon fillet on a serving platter and arrange asparagus lengthwise on top of the fish.
- Then sprinkle the shrimp over the top and spoon some of the dressing over it.
- Finally, garnish with radishes or herbs and serve the dish at room temperature with the remaining dressing in a jug.
- Cooking time: 25-30 minutes plus resting.
Whole baked turbot with rosemary, cherry tomatoes and garlic sauce
Butter beans, tomatoes, garlic and rosemary can be combined deliciously for a festive Christmas dinner with fish. Fresh parsley and a generous squeeze of lemon round it all off. Plus, this recipe idea delivers a wow factor with minimal effort with maximum reward and is perfect for a dinner party!
Ingredients:
- 8 tablespoons olive oil + extra for drizzling
- 1 x 1.5kg (for 6 people) or 2kg (for 8 people) whole turbot or brill, gutted and unruffled
- 200 g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 2 bird's eye chili peppers, crumbled
- 3 tbsp good apple cider vinegar + 1 pinch of sugar
- 1 x 400g can of butter beans, drained
- 2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 Price Paprika
- Lemon wedges for serving
Preparation:
- First preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6.
- Then rub 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the turbot and season generously with salt.
- Place the fish in a suitable baking tray and sprinkle the tomatoes, half the rosemary and the fennel seeds over it.
- Then drizzle the dish with a little more olive oil and salt & pepper.
- First put the whole thing in the oven for 30-40 minutes. The turbot is cooked when the core temperature in the thickest part is around 55 ° C.
- Then take the baking tray out of the oven and let the fish dish rest.
- To make the garlic sauce, heat the remaining olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat and gently fry the garlic, chilies and remaining rosemary until the garlic is golden brown.
- Add the vinegar, roasted tomatoes and turbot juice, butter beans and half the parsley, heat through and check for seasoning.
- Pour over the fish and sprinkle with the remaining parsley and a pinch of paprika.
- Serve with lemon wedges.
Bake sea bass with peppers, anchovies and potatoes for a festive Christmas dinner with fish
This is another wonderfully fresh and tasty recipe. The baked sea bass is served with richly roasted red peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and anchovies. To prepare the sea bass yourself, first scale the fish under cold running water over several sheets of newspaper. Grab the fish by the tail and use a dull, thick-bladed knife to scrape from tail to head. Then cut off all the fins with strong kitchen scissors. First, remove the entrails and rinse the cavity with plenty of cold water.
Ingredients:
- 1 Saffron socket
- 900 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm thick slices
- 4 plum tomatoes, skinned and quartered lengthways
- 50 g anchovy fillets in oil, drained
- 150ml good quality chicken stock
- 4 red peppers, each deseeded and cut into 8 pieces
- 8 garlic cloves, each cut into three slices
- 8 small sprigs of oregano
- 85 ml olive oil
- 1.5-1.75 kg sea bass, striped bass or kingfish, cleaned and trimmed
Preparation:
- First preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.
- Then put the saffron in a teacup, pour 2 tablespoons of hot water over it and let it soak.
- First put the potatoes in a pot of boiling salted water and cook for 7 minutes. Drain well and arrange in a narrow strip in the bottom of a roasting pan large enough to hold the sea bass either lengthwise or crosswise. The potatoes should form a bed for the fish, leaving plenty of room on either side for the peppers.
- Then sprinkle the tomatoes and anchovy fillets over the potatoes, then pour the water with saffron and the broth over them.
- Then sprinkle the pepper pieces on both sides of the potatoes and add the garlic, oregano and olive oil.
- Season everything well with salt and pepper and bake for 30 minutes.
- Cut the fish 5-6 times on each side and then in the opposite direction on just one side to create an attractive crisscross pattern.
- Rub generously with a little olive oil, season well with salt and pepper and then let rest on the potatoes.
- Then put the dish back in the oven and bake for another 35 minutes until the fish is cooked.
- Finally serve with the fried vegetables.
Salmon in batter, with spinach and lemon, Jamie Oliver's style
The famous chef impresses with this simple Christmas recipe that is quick and absolutely tasty. For such a light and festive Christmas dinner with fish, all you have to do is layer the finished puff pastry on a baking tray, top it with garlic, spinach and salmon fillets and glaze it with a red pesto-egg mixture so that it comes out of the oven beautifully golden.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 500 g gefroren Spinach
- 1 x 320g puff pastry
- 4 x 130 g salmon fillets, without skin and without fish bones
- 2 large eggs
- 1 heaped tbsp red pesto
- 1 lemon
Preparation:
- First, preheat the oven again to 220 °C.
- Then peel and chop the onion and fry it in a large non-stick pan over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Also peel and thinly slice the garlic and add it, then cook for 10 minutes or until softened, stirring regularly.
- Then stir in the spinach, cover and cook for 5 minutes, then remove the lid and cook for another 5 minutes, or until all the liquid has evaporated.
- Then roll out the dough and place it, still on the paper, in a baking tray.
- Spread over the spinach, leaving a 5 cm border all around.
- Start by placing the salmon fillets 1cm apart, then use the paper to help you fold in the edges of the dough. This allows you to wrap the salmon tightly and leave the top exposed.
- Then beat the eggs and brush them over the exposed dough.
- Then bake on the bottom of the oven for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, beat the pesto into the remaining egg.
- When the time is up, pull out the tray and pour the egg mixture over the salmon and into the spaces.
- Then return it to the bottom of the oven for the final 15 minutes or until the dough is golden brown and the egg is just cooked through.
- Finally serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over.
